In modern camshaft production, the cams are usually thermally joined onto the associated camshaft, for which reason they are first heated and subsequently shrink-fitted on the ground camshaft. The same applies also to joining sensor wheels, chain wheels, etc. To be able to join a component, for example, a cam reliably onto the associated shaft without damaging said shaft, this component has to be heated to such an extent that its bore is larger than the shaft. The disadvantage of thermal joining is the dwell time required for shrinking the component, during which time neither the component nor the shaft can be moved. In order to keep the dwell time and thus the cycle time as short as possible, the respective component is therefore expanded, that is, thermally heated, just wide enough that the component can be reliably joined. However, since in series production in some cases very different component dimensions and therefore very different tolerances are to be expected, reducing the dwell time is subject to a natural limit due to the existing component tolerances. Under test conditions, dwell times can be set close to zero; however, due to the tolerances, this would not allow a stable process under production conditions and is therefore not possible. Since component tolerances can be reduced only to a limited extent and, depending on the component, for example, in the case of hardened cams, can even get tighter, a significant reduction of the dwell time and thus a shortening of the cycle time is currently not possible or not possible without problems. Since the dwell time accounts for approx. 30% of the process time during joining, a significant reduction of the dwell time would result in considerable advantages in production.